Tamil Typewriting Exam
தமிழ் தட்டச்சுத் தேர்வு: மாதிரித் தாள்
The Tamil typewriting exam is the Government Technical Examination (GTE) of the Department of Technical Education, Tamil Nadu, held in a February and an August session. It has Pre-Junior, Junior, Senior and High Speed grades; Junior and Senior each have a 10-minute speed paper and a Second Paper (a statement and a letter). Sit a 10-minute mock speed paper below.
Mock paper, original text by TypeTamilOnline. Not an official TNDTE paper.
Exam mode: one mock speed paper, 10 minutes. Speed and marking stay hidden until time is up. Not an official mark; how it differs from the real paper.
Result
0 net words per minute
- Accuracy
- Correct words
- Wrong words
- Gross speed
- Keystrokes
- Time
How these numbers are counted
- Net speed
- Words typed exactly right, divided by the minutes taken. The big number.
- Gross speed
- Every finished word, right or wrong, divided by the minutes taken.
- Accuracy
- Correct words divided by finished words. One wrong letter makes the word wrong.
- Word
- Anything between two spaces, as written in the text, punctuation included. Not 5 characters, as English tests count.
- Keystrokes
- Every key you pressed, Backspace included, and the same scaled to an hour.
Your recent runs
Choose the Typewriter layout if you will sit the exam on a machine, or Tamil99 for the computer exams. The mock papers are our own text, not official papers. How they differ
Official pattern
The TNDTE Typewriting Exam at a Glance
Tamil typewriting is examined in the Government Technical Examinations (GTE) of the Department of Technical Education, Tamil Nadu. Each grade has two papers: a 10-minute speed paper (the First Paper) and a Second Paper of a statement and a letter, 45 minutes for Junior and 60 for Senior. On exam day the Second Paper comes first, then the speed paper.
| Grade | Who can write it | First Paper (speed) | Second Paper | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-Junior | Pass in 6th standard; students of approved institutes only | Not set out in the documents we could read | Rs. 100 | |
| Junior | Pass in 8th standard or equivalent | 10 minutes; passage of 2 paragraphs | 45 minutes; statement (50 marks) and letter or Government Order (50 marks) | Rs. 100 |
| Senior | Pass in Junior grade in the same language | 10 minutes; passage of 3 paragraphs | 60 minutes; statement (60 marks) and official letter, G.O. or proceedings (40 marks) | Rs. 130 |
| High Speed | Pass in Senior grade in the same language | 10 minutes; passage of 4 paragraphs | None in the timetable | Rs. 200 |
Plus Rs. 30 for the application or registration. Fees under G.O. No. 226 (Higher Education), 26.10.2022, as listed in the February and August 2025 notifications, the latest we could open. Timings from the February 2025 timetable.
The two papers
What Each Paper Asks For
First Paper: The Speed Test
You copy a printed passage for 10 minutes. The guidelines for examiners say the passage length is set in strokes by the syllabus for each grade, with 2 paragraphs for Junior, 3 for Senior and 4 for High Speed. Passages avoid technical subjects, classical literature, controversial topics, numerals where possible, and for Junior, long unfamiliar words. In Tamil papers, the signs : ; and ! are avoided because most Tamil typewriters have no keys for them.
Second Paper: Statement and Letter
You type from a handwritten manuscript and lay it out on the page. The statement is a table of five columns and 6 to 8 rows of 4- to 6-digit figures, with a one-line main heading (at most 40 strokes in Tamil) and no total column. The letter follows the formats in the Directorate’s Model Forms for Typewriting, with marginal instructions such as new paragraph, run on, transpose and delete to carry out.
| Question | Marks | Strokes | Marginal instructions | Abbreviations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Junior: statement | 50 | 350 | 10 | None |
| Junior: letter or G.O. | 50 | 800 | 10 | 4 to 6 |
| Senior: statement | 60 | 800 | 15 | 6 to 8 |
| Senior: letter, G.O. or proceedings | 40 | 1,000 | 10 | 6 to 8 |
From the TNDTE guidelines for setting typewriting question papers. Strokes exclude the hyphens of ruled lines and the spaces between columns.
What the Official Documents Do Not Say
We read the two 2025 exam notifications, the June 2025 circular and the guidelines for setting papers. None of them gives the pass mark, the marks for the speed paper, the deduction per mistake or a words-per-minute figure for any grade. Those details belong to the syllabus, which we could not read from an official source, so we leave them out rather than repeat numbers we cannot check.
Dates and the Move to Computers
In 2025, the latest year whose notifications we could open, the typewriting papers were on 1 and 2 March (February session) and on 30 and 31 August (August session), with applications online at tndtegteonline.in. We could not open a 2026 notification, so check the current one there for this year’s dates; TNDTE marks all dates as tentative.
A circular of 23 June 2025 extends typewriter exams until 2027; from 2028, all commerce exams will be held only on computers. It also asks institutes to teach new Tamil typing students on the government-approved Tamil99 keyboard.
Mock papers
How Our Mock Papers Differ From the Real Exam
There are 2 Junior papers (299 and 299 words, 2 paragraphs) and 2 Senior papers (406 and 411 words, 3 paragraphs), written for this site on everyday topics in plain office Tamil, following the examiners’ guidelines above. New text switches paper.
- Only the speed paper. The Second Paper needs layout on a page, which a typing box cannot judge.
- Words, not marks. You get net words per minute, accuracy and every wrong word, not an exam mark, because the official marking scheme is not published in any document we could verify.
- Lengths are ours. The official stroke counts are in the syllabus. If you finish a paper early, the run ends and your speed is worked out over the time you took.
- Backspace works here. On a typewriter a wrong key stays on the paper. For a stricter run, do not correct.
- Paragraphs are shown, not typed. Type a space where a new paragraph starts.
Practise the Second Paper Too
Set Text to My own text and paste a letter or a Government Order your institute gave you. You get the same speed and mistake tracking on it, and the text stays saved in this browser for next time.
A Routine That Works
- Learn the keys with the Typewriter lessons, starting on the home row.
- Build accuracy on short texts: graded paragraphs or the Thirukkural race.
- Sit one mock paper a day in exam mode, and drill the letters the result says you miss.
Typewriting for TNPSC Typist Posts
TNPSC Group IV Notification 07/2025 (25 April 2025), the latest Group IV notification we have read, lists 1,099 Typist posts in the Ministerial, Judicial Ministerial, Secretariat and Legislative Assembly Secretariat services, and a few more in other bodies. The typewriting qualification is the Government Technical Examination:
- Senior grade in Tamil and in English, or
- Senior grade in Tamil and Junior grade in English, or
- Senior grade in English and Junior grade in Tamil,
plus a pass in the Certificate Course in Computer on Office Automation from the Directorate of Technical Education (holders of a degree or diploma in computer science and related subjects are exempt, and others may apply and complete it within their probation or two years). Steno-Typist posts need both typewriting and shorthand.
Selection is a single written exam (Tamil eligibility-cum-scoring test, general studies and aptitude) followed by certificate verification. The notification sets no typing speed test, so your GTE certificates are what count.
Sources
The facts on this page come from the documents below: the February and August 2025 GTE notifications, the June 2025 circular, the paper-setting guidelines and TNPSC Notification 07/2025. They are the latest we could open; we last looked for newer notices on . If a newer notice changes anything here, tell us.
- TNDTE: GTE February 2025 notification (eligibility, fees, timetable) tndtegteonline.in
- TNDTE: GTE August 2025 notification No. I/307532/2025 (Pre-Junior grade, fees) tndtegteonline.in
- TNDTE circular DOTE/194/2025-RO2, 23.06.2025 (typewriters until 2027, computers from 2028, Tamil99) tndtegteonline.in
- TNDTE: Guidelines for setting typewriting question papers (paragraphs, Second Paper marks and strokes) dte.tn.gov.in
- TNPSC: Group IV Notification 07/2025 (Typist qualification, scheme of examination) tnpsc.gov.in
Questions People Ask
What is the pass mark for the Tamil typewriting exam?
We could not find it in any official TNDTE document we could read, so we do not state one. Figures you see elsewhere (for example a set words per minute for Junior) are not in the notifications or the paper-setting guidelines. Ask your typewriting institute for the current syllabus, which sets the speed-paper length for each grade.
Who can write the Junior and Senior grade exams?
Junior grade: a pass in 8th standard or an equivalent examination. Senior grade: a pass in the Junior grade exam in the same language. High Speed: a pass in the Senior grade. The Pre-Junior grade, added in August 2025, needs a pass in 6th standard and is open only to students of approved institutes.
How much is the exam fee?
The 2025 notifications list Rs. 100 for Pre-Junior and Junior grade subjects, Rs. 130 for Senior grade subjects and Rs. 200 for High Speed tests, under G.O. No. 226 (Higher Education) of 26 October 2022, plus Rs. 30 for the application or registration. Fees are paid only through the payment link on the online application. Check the current notification before you pay.
Will the exam move from typewriters to computers?
Yes. A TNDTE circular of 23 June 2025 says typewriting exams continue on typewriters until 2027, and from 2028 all commerce exams will be held only on computers. The same circular asks institutes to train new Tamil typing students on the government-approved Tamil99 keyboard. Practise on the Typewriter layout for machine exams and on Tamil99 for the computer exams.
Do I need a typewriting certificate for TNPSC typist jobs?
Yes. For the Typist post in Group IV (Notification 07/2025), you need the Government Technical Examination in typewriting at Senior grade in Tamil and English, or Senior in one and Junior in the other, plus the Certificate Course in Computer on Office Automation. If you do not have the Office Automation certificate yet, you may still apply and complete it within your probation or two years. The selection itself is a written exam; there is no typing test.
Is the mock paper here the same as the real exam?
No. It practises the 10-minute speed paper only, on a screen, with our own passages and a words-per-minute result instead of marks. The real exam also has a second paper (a statement and a letter set out on the page), uses passages counted in strokes, and is marked by examiners. The differences are listed on this page.
Can this mock test give me a government typewriting certificate?
No. Completing a mock paper here gives you a practice result, not a qualification or an application to an exam. Use it to rehearse sustained typing, then follow the examining authority’s current application process through your institute or the official portal. Do not submit a copied website result as a government certificate.
Can I see mistakes while practising a mock paper?
Yes. Change Mode from the exam setting to the practice setting to see live marking. Exam mode deliberately hides live speed and marking until the ten minutes finish. Use practice mode to investigate errors first, then return to exam mode when you want to rehearse typing without that feedback.
Does this mock exam include statement and letter formatting?
No. The interactive mock covers speed typing, so it cannot assess margins, alignment or the layout of a statement or letter. Those need separate practice with your institute’s current paper instructions. The comparison on this page explains the missing parts; completing a speed passage alone is not preparation for every paper.
Why does my mock result show WPM instead of strokes or marks?
The trainer measures correctly typed space-separated words per minute. It does not apply an official examiner’s deductions or convert your result into a Junior or Senior grade mark. Keep the passage and keyboard layout consistent when comparing practice runs, and use your institute’s current guidance for interpreting an actual examination paper.